Customer Reviews

The Fundamentals : Building Visual Studio Applications on a Visual FoxPro 6.0 Foundation

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

A new job has required me to learn VFP 6.0. I had some programming background, but none in the "visual" MS world or in OOP. This book got me up-to-speed in both quickly. I was a bit lost at first, but now I am through the book, the layout is quite logical: first some pieces of the lanugage, then forms and classes, then a nice practical disscussion of OOP. Once I got half-way through the book, I could start writing some object-oriented VFP programs ... it was a big first step, and this book helped me make it. I haven't found a better first book on VFP. BTW, I have started reading the 2nd book in this series: "Effective Techniques for Application Development with Visual FoxPro" and it seems to pick up in complexity where the "Fundamentals" book leaves off.

Whil Hentzen did it before and he has done it again. Whil's Programming Visual FoxPro 3.0 book was the single best introduction to VFP 3.0 and now he has done the same for VFP 6.0. The coverage is complete and the focus is on learning how VFP really works inside. An execellent first VFP book for anyone!

Though the software has a devoted following dating back over a decade to the days of dBase, FoxPro has never gotten the credit (or the market share) it deserves among the database/developer community.

Because of this virtually no books are available to someone just starting out. All FoxPro titles offered today only make sense to either the already-initiated, those coming from other development environments, or others who have similar experience. It seems that Microsoft is not interested in growing the market base (especially while simultaneously pushing competing technologies) and book publishers aren't interested in taking risks on releasing new (even introductory) titles. These and other factors continue to prevent FoxPro from flourishing. Those using it continue to do so due to its pedigree which includes (relative) ease of use and a stunningly fast database engine.

The book clearly has some pedagogic issues and I wouldn't exactly call it a "For Dummies" title. I had to reread many of the sections within chapters in order to connect the dots. The chapters at the beginning tend to put the cart before the horse (one of the first chapters lists pages and pages of command statements which to me might as well been talking about nuclear physics, should have been in the back as an appendix). I think the people creating and reviewing the book were clearly more technical than user/learner oriented.

However if you can read and think for yourself this book is about the best thing going. The pages are chock full of content. I recommend first looking over the chapters then rearranging the order you plan on reading them to match your learning style.

I don't know what the persons who rated this book low expect.But I found that this book give a great foundation of understanding the basics of OOP in VFP for those users who have traditionally used DOS based FoxPro. It hits the point every things you want to know about VFP.

This is a excelent book, but do not has good practice examples I suggest read the "1001 things you wanted to know about Visual FoxPro" too, and "Effective Programming Techniques". Use the Hacker's Guide of Visual Foxpro for a complete Resource Kit. For Beginners I suggest QUE USING Visual FoxPro 6.0 or 7.0.

I don't know what the persons who rated this book low expect. No book if you don't apply what it has to say or you don't have foundational skills in porgramming can make the understanding of a language any easier, and to say Microsoft's book is better shows pure ignorance. This is an awesome book. It is written by someone who cuts out the bull and expects a basic understanding of iteration, case statements, and overall program logic. It isn't meant to teach you programming. It is meant to teach ou the ins and outs of Visual FoxPro. If you want the other, take a beginning course in programming. Whil teaches you from the viewpoint of someone who uses the language day in and day out and has done so for several years. His book fills a void and helped me get up to speed quickly when I was a newby at Visual FoxPro. This is one great book. It deserves 6 stars.

Adding a bit of real life humor to an otherwise dry subject, Whil Hentzen will bring FoxPro 2.6 programmers up to speed quickly. Even if you're really experienced you will learn more than enough to pay for the book. Added bonus: the book text and source code are available for download so you can use key word searches to find a topic.

I've tried several times to convert to Object Oriented Programming (OOP), but failed miserably. This author not only got this would be programmer up to speed on this productive technique, he presented the extremely technical subject with a great deal of humor. For my level of skill, he presented it just right to keep me highly challenged but yet grasping the concepts. This author got through to me and I highly recommend the book. I've also found that he quickly responds personally to messages I've sent to "Webmaster" at his website.

It's a great book if you have already red something about the language. If you are new on VFP buy the book anyway, because you will love it. It's clear, intelligent and good reading. It's one of that books you want to read from the first to last page in one day. Advices for good programming, a lot of code and very good humour.

Would someone tell the people who wrote the reviews giving it one star, to actually read the title of the book. It is for people that already have a foundation in VF 6.0 hence the title '... on a Visual FoxPro 6.0 Foundation'. People trying to learn VF6.0 don't buy this book! As a more advanced reference it is good.